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Mainstream media continues to whitewash terrorists, Zakir Musa is now ‘fashionable young boy’ who loved ‘cigarettes and sports bikes’

Zakir Musa, the jihadi terrorist head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was killed by the security forces on 23 May. Musa’s terrorist organisation was supported by Al-Qaeda and he was being hunted by security forces for a long time.

However, Indian mainstream media and some so-called ‘secular-liberals’ never fail to mourn the slain terrorists and are often seen whitewashing their crimes, even giving them the ‘hero’ or martyr status.


News 18 has published a report on the slain terrorist Musa, sharing mundane information about him as if he was a rock star or movie actor. The report by News 18 attempts to highlight information like how Musa’s father Abdul Rasheed Bhat, an engineer by profession, had received a packet containing an iPhone, iPod, and three debit cards in 2013. Zakir Musa’s decision to become an armed terrorist has been represented in the report as a father’s sorrow of his son ‘sacrificing’ luxury.

The report goes on to quote the terrorist’s friends saying how Musa loved hair gels, expensive deodorants, new clothes and shoes.

The report also attempts to find the ‘trigger’ that ‘made’ the so-called “Young boy who loved sports bikes and cigarettes” join terrorists. In Musa’s case, the report says it was probably because of the incident when he was ‘slapped by a policeman’ and falsely accused of stone pelting.

This comes after videos surfaced on social media where Zakir Musa’s father is seen hailing the terrorists and claiming that they are fighting for ‘Allah’. The videos also show Musa’s father calling for ‘unity’ among all jihadis.

Earlier, Pratik Sinha, the founder of Alt News had attempted to whitewash the terrorist as a ‘separatist’.

Such excuses were drawn by Indian mainstream media and several journalists too to whitewash the crimes of Burhan Wani and the Pulwama attacker. The attempts to humanise dreaded terrorists and enemies of humanity as stylish, fashionable young men and ‘revolutionaries’ is something that is done by Pakistan to peddle their agenda in Kashmir too.

Zakir Musa was from a wealthy family. He was a student of civil engineering in a college in Punjab. The fact that he chose to be a terrorist despite all of it only punctures the false narratives of unemployment and poverty being the cause of Islamist radicalism.

Be it the Pulwama attacker or Zakir Musa, they had made it abundantly clear in their statements that it is the Islamic caliphate they want and not ‘Kashmir’s separation. While the Pulwama attacker had said that he wants to kill the ‘cow piss drinkers’, Musa had stated that he wants to rid India of Hindus. Media and so-called ‘seculars’ attempting to find ’causes and triggers’ behind such genocidal ideologies are only misleading the masses away from the real issues.

Without Modi-2, the real risk was going back to bad habits

This grand moment from May 26, 2014 is still etched in our memories.

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Narendra Modi taking oath as Prime Minister on 26 May 2014

Today, in a few hours from now, this will be joined by another memorable image as Narendra Damodardas Modi is sworn into office for a second time. And yes, I will boldly predict, without any doubt whatsoever, that there is going to be a third time.

What if we take a moment to speak of that which now seems unthinkable? What if Modi had lost these elections? What if this was either Rahul Gandhi or someone else being sworn into office with his support, beginning the 59th year (yes 59th year!) of Congress rule in India? Beyond the partisan egos, what would we have lost as a nation?

The real loss is that we as a nation would have gone back to the bad habits of old. Those would be the bad habits that have kept us from achieving our potential even after 70 years of independence.

What makes a ‘first world country’? One of the most fundamental things is ‘rule based governance’. In other words, the rules are the same for everyone, whether you are a small shopkeeper or running a global multinational company. Money and prestige and power coziness will get you nowhere.

That’s not how things used to go in India. If a young student owes Rs 500 on her hostel mess bill, she doesn’t get her degree until she can settle the account and get a “No Dues Certificate”. But if you owe, say Rs 5,000 crores, you can get all the exceptions and extensions you want. Even more credit.

All that changed with Modi. He put Indian business houses on a “diet” of rule based governance for the first time in 70 years. The best example of this is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

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Companies now fear insolvency action

This is not anti-business, but pro-competition. It is the most pro-capitalist thing you can do. When big business cannot use its influence to shut out the competition, that’s when you unleash the true uplifting potential of capitalism.

Every child in India today knows the sequence : 0, 5, 12, 18, 28. These are the slabs for GST rates. Can you imagine a common person five years ago being able to remember the service tax rate, the sales tax rate, the VAT, the excise duty, the local body tax rate, etc on each item? No need today. This is the kind of transparency that is needed for business to flourish.

The other endemic problem in India is a culture of corruption. PM Modi ensured ZERO top level corruption in five years, possibly delivering the first “scam free government” since independence.

This should have been the norm. It is a pity that this is an exception. Unlike floods and cyclones, scams are not natural disasters. But we learned to take them for granted. Indeed, we learned to take scams as an integral part of politics.

To become a first world country, we had to stop this corruption some day. Somebody had to draw a line in the sand and say: thus far and no further.

But what about corruption at lower levels? Well, corruption is a culture and the cues come from the top. Once the tap is turned off upstairs, it will take some time for the stream to dry up below. For the new habits to be cast in stone.

In fact, some direct benefits have been clearly visible and have massively contributed to the BJP’s victory. Money from the government arrived directly in bank accounts of the poor, with no scope for middlemen to take a cut. Many of the benefits such as gas connections, electricity connections, toilets and pucca houses were obtained without paying bribes.

If the Indian electorate had gone the other way this time, the tap upstairs would have been turned on in no time. And the flow would have continued just as it has for decades.

There are other visible symptoms of this. The new Modi sarkar will be formed in just a few more hours. And yet, every anchor has shrugged miserably on every show and admitted that they have no clue who is getting what. Most have admitted openly that “sources” simply don’t work when it comes to Modi sarkar. What a sea change from just 10 years ago, when celebrity journalists would be on the phone with lobbyists fixing portfolios.

It takes time to build good habits, to build a routine with a healthy diet and regular exercise. We had five years and that was a good start. But India could not afford to go on a binge just yet. From the Insolvency Code to Swachch Bharat, we needed at least five more years of discipline.

A week after Samajwadi Party barred their spokespersons from participating in TV debates, Congress follows suit

After the Lok Sabha debacle, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala took to Twitter to inform that Congress has decided to not send spokespersons on television debates for a month. All media channels and their editors have been requested not to place Congress representatives on their shows.


This decision comes a week after Congress suffered a humiliating loss in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Shrinking to a tally of 52 seats out of a total of 542 in the Lok Sabha polls is in itself a huge embarrassment for the grand old national party, given the fact that it will now not even be able to elect a Leader of Opposition.

In first back-to-back majority in the Lok Sabha polls for a single party in over three decades, the Modi-led BJP won 303 seats out of 542 in the Lok Sabha polls, handing out a crushing defeat to the Congress and many other political opponents.

However, it seems that the Congress has followed the footsteps of the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who too, after meeting the similar fate in the Lok Sabha elections, had, last week, dismissed the panel of spokespersons of his party.

SS of the letter signed by SP’ chief spokesperson, Rajendra Chowdhury cancelling the appointment of all party spokespersons with immediate effect.

The party had asked TV channels not to invite any of the party leaders who were acting as spokespersons for any debate or talk show. In a press release, party’s chief spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury said that Samajwadi Party has cancelled the appointment of all spokespersons with immediate effect.

The Samajwadi Party had contested on 37 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh but got just five seats while its ally, the Bahujan Samaj Party, fielded candidates on 38 seats and won 10. Congress could win one seat.

Meanwhile, after the landslide victory, Narendra Modi is all set to take oath as Prime Minister of India for his second term at 7 pm on Thursday. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the Prime Minister and other members of the Union Council at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. A record number of 8,000 guests are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Times Group’s Gujarati portal and Gujarati newspaper Sandesh spread fake news about ‘glitch’ in Ahmedabad metro

Times Groups’ Gujarati portal, “imgujarat” yesterday shared a video of the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad metro train breaking down on the track. It said that the passengers reached the station after walking on the tracks.


Popular Gujarati newspaper Sandesh, too, published the news mocking the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro that how the metro had a ‘glitch’ and passengers were forced to walk on the track.


The tweet, which is in Gujarati, reads, “Ahmedabad Metro fails, passengers left stranded on the bridge”. A video was also shared on social media trying to mock the Gujarat development model.


However, as reported online portal DeshGujarat.com, the video which is widely in circulation on social media is actually a mock drill carried out by Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) and that the ‘passengers’ were actually GMRC staffers. As per the report, the mock drill was held as per safety manual and was carried out to study possible evacuation in case the train faces such glitch. Gujarati magazine Chitralekha also confirmed that the same was a mock drill.

Petty politics: Outgoing Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu to skip Jagan Mohan Reddy’s swearing in ceremony

Telugu Desam Party President (TDP) and outgoing Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will not be attending the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on May 30. A delegation of TDP will instead be sent to meet Reddy at his residence in Amaravati before the swearing-in ceremony. The delegation will be comprising TDP leaders Atchan Naidu, P Keshav, and G Srinivas Rao who will hand over a letter to Reddy congratulating him for assuming the office of the Chief Minister.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs of the TDP presided over by Naidu wherein the delegation was also deputed to be sent to Reddy’s residence was decided. Naidu decided to skip the swearing-in ceremony despite Reddy telephoning personally to invite him after some senior TDP leaders in the meeting advised Naidu against attending the ceremony.

The senior TDP leaders reportedly advised Naidu not to attend the ceremony as it was taking place at a public venue. The leaders were of the view that it would be fine for Naidu to attend the ceremony if it were to happen at the Raj Bhawan but since it will be held at a public place, it would not be appropriate for Naidu to attend it.

In a massive victory in the recent Assembly polls in the State, Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party had swept 151 seats out of a total of 175 seats. The party also won the recent Lok Sabha polls by winning 22 out of 25 seats.

UP: SC/ST commission takes suo moto cognizance of violence against SC community for not voting for SP candidate

The Uttar Pradesh SC/ST commission has taken suo moto cognizance of violence reported against SC community members for not casting votes in favour of Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Samajwadi Party stalwart was the Mahagathbandhan candidate contesting from Mainpuri constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. The commission has directed SSP Mainpuri to register FIR against the miscreants and take swift actions against them.


The letter by the UP SC/ST commission reads, “it has come to our notice that violence was used against SC-ST people in the Lok Sabha constituency of Mainpuri who did not vote for the SP candidate Mulayam Singh Yadav in the elections. They were pounded with sticks and intimidated by gun firing. One of the members of the marginalized communities, BSF jawan Ramnaresh filed a complaint in the police station after fleeing away from the situation.”

According to a report, Yadavs of Nagala Mandhata attacked the people of scheduled castes in Unwa village for not voting for Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Terming it a serious offence, the commission has asked the police to register the case under relevant IPC sections and enlist the incident under post-poll violence cases. It has also issued directions to initiate action against the culprits under the applicable provisions of the SC-ST Act 2016. SSP Mainpuri has also been directed to visit the location to review the security of the members of the SC/ST community in the area. The commission has also requested the deployment of Arms Guard to avoid such incidents in future.

It is noteworthy to mention that Mulayam Singh Yadav who polled 53.75 percent of total votes was closely trailed by BJP candidate Prem Singh Shakya with 44.09 percent vote share.

Sunanda Pushkar death case: Accused Shashi Tharoor granted permission by the court to travel abroad

Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor, accused in the murder of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, has been granted permission by the court to travel abroad. Tharoor had filed the application seeking permission to travel overseas from June 1 to July 2 with Delhi’s Rouse Revenue Court.


Tharoor was charged for the abetment of suicide according to a 3,000-page charge sheet filed by the Delhi police in the case. The case was transferred from the Magistrate’s court to the sessions court by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal for fast track hearing on February 4, 2019.

Pushkar was found dead under mysterious circumstances in The Leela Palace Hotel, Delhi on January 17, 2014. The trial against Tharoor had begun on February 21, 2019. Recently, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that Delhi police had tampered with the evidence in the case.

Tharoor, a three-time MP had recently commented on the embarrassing defeat of his party in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He had said there was a need for the party to introspect and it should begin with resolving the issues within the party. Baffled by his party’s dismal show in contrast to the historic win of the BJP, Tharoor, instead of accepting defeat graciously, had said the BJP had marketed their product ‘Modi’ really well.

Cricket World Cup 2019 Preview – Match 1: England v South Africa, the opening game

May 30, how many of you waited for this day? The battle for the biggest title in cricket will begin on Thursday. The clash will take place between two teams who never won a title before.

England

England is considered as the strongest and most favourite team to win this World Cup. They are the number one ODI team as per ICC Rankings and they have been consistently playing attacking cricket. They enter the World Cup with tremendous form, won the 5 match ODI series against Pakistan in which they smashed 340+ score in 4 consecutive innings.

England has a strong batting line-up. From number one to number seven, everyone has the skill of smashing it from the very first ball. Since World Cup 2015, 9 times English batsmen have scored an ODI hundred in less than 70 balls. The second in the list is South Africa (3) and they are playing against each other in the opener.

England’s bowling is a bit of worry as they were thrashed by Pakistan batsmen, which is a rare sight in ODIs. Pakistan is not known for scoring big totals but in recently concluded series they became the first team to score 300 or more runs in 3 consecutive ODI innings. Their only weak point is their bowling and for which English selectors reshuffled their provisional World Cup squad. They included Jofra Archer, who just played 3 ODIs for England so that they can have a stronger bowling line up.

South Africa

South Africa on the other hand, is more balanced if you compare both batting and bowling. There is no weak link except their habit of choking in a crunch situation. The team consists of solid and attacking openers like Amla and de Kock, which is followed by the middle-order consist of Faf du Plessis and David Miller.

South Africa’s strength is in their bowling and acrobat fielding. When a team has bowlers like Rabada, Ngidi, and Tahir, no opposition can think of taking them lightly. Styen has been ruled out of the first match due to injury. They are one of the best fielding sides and this will always bring hesitation in opposition players to steal a run against them. South Africa has won all 5 previous bilateral series in the last year.

Overall

The players to watch out from each team are Buttler and Rabada. Buttler has been hitting balls out of the park at will. He has smashed 5 ODI hundreds in less than 70 balls in the last few years. Rabada is mean. He has not given more than 6 runs per over even once in the last 18 games. His speed is his main weapon. He can swiftly remove the top order of the opposition which can boost the confidence of other bowlers as well as the team.

England v South Africa in ODIs

Overall: Matches 59, England Won 29, South Africa Won 26, Tied 1, No Result 3

World Cup: Matches 6, England won 3, South Africa won 3

Recent Form (most recent first): England W W W W NR, South Africa W W W W W

ICC Rankings: England (1), South Africa (3)

Upcoming Records

Eoin Morgan has scored 6,977 runs and needs 23 more to reach the 7,000 runs milestone. He will also become the first English player to play 200 ODIs.

Jason Roy has scored 2,938 runs and needs 62 more to become the 16th England player to reach the 3,000 runs.

Hashim Amla has scored 7,910 runs and needs 90 more to become the fourth South African player to reach the 8,000 runs.

Dale Steyn has taken 196 wickets and needs 4 more to become the fifth South African player to reach the 200 wickets milestone.

Squads

England: Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen.

TMC MLA Manirul Islam, state youth wing president and 2 others join BJP

Trouble continues to mount for the West Bengal chief minister as the MLA exodus continues. After 3 West Bengal MLAs shunned their respective parties to join hands with the BJP yesterday, today another TMC lawmaker Manirul Islam has officially joined the saffron party in presence of BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy.

Along with Manirul Islam, president of TMC’s youth wing Gadadhar Hazra, the secretary of the same unit Mohammad Asif Iqbal and TMC leader Nimai Das have also switched sides to join the BJP.


Yesterday, after TMC’s Shubrangshu Roy, Tushar Kanti Bhattacharjee (Bishnupur) from Congress and the CPI(M)’s Debendra Nath Roy joined the BJP along with over 50 councillors in state, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya had said that it was not due to horse trading but due to the change of heart that the MLAs and councillors have chosen to side with the BJP.

Kailash had then said that it was just a start and that more West Bengal MLAs and leaders are expected to shun their political parties and enrol themselves in the BJP.

Taking a swipe at the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy who welcomed Manirul Islam into the BJP fold said that if she is saying that those who joined the BJP are from the left and the Congress, it is just a face-saving exercise. Roy has also claimed that more than 100 Trinamool legislators were in touch with the BJP.


After a spectacular performance put up by the Narendra Modi-led NDA alliance at the centre and winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal out of the total 42 seats, speculations were rife that many MLAs and disgruntled local leaders in TMC might switch over to the BJP, releasing that the saffron party is indeed making deep inroads in the state.

1984 riots accused Jagdish Tytler among other Congress leaders assembled outside Rahul Gandhi’s house to convince him not to quit

In a show of indifference towards the victims of 1984 Anti-Sikh riots, the Congress party once again was seen accommodating Congress leader and 1984 Sikh genocide accused Jagdish Tytler amongst the congregation assembled outside Rahul Gandhi’s house here on Wednesday, to convince him not to quit as the party president.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s resignation drama ceases to end with Rahul remaining steadfast on quitting his post in wake of the Lok Sabha poll drubbing while his party leaders trying their level best to placate him from doing so.

In the latest efforts, Congress party leaders and supporters assembled outside Rahul Gandhi’s residence in a bid to convince him not to quit as party president. However, pictures shared by ANI show Jagdish Tytler sitting amongst the other party members.


This is, however, not the first time the Congress has shown such contempt towards the victims of the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. Earlier too, Jagdish Tytler had been spotted at the event in which Sheila Dikshit was made Delhi Congress chief. During the event, Jagdish Tytler was seen occupying the front row seat.

Similarly, last year, in the mother of all ironies, when Congress President led a 5-hour symbolic ‘fast’ for ‘communal harmony’, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler both were present at the venue leaving the party red-faced. Later, they were both asked to leave.

The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots took place in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which resulted in brutal killings of more than 2800 people according to official figures. Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were accused of a direct role in orchestrating the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India.

Meanwhile, the three-time chief minister of Delhi and Senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit has plans to join the congregation assembled outside Rahul Gandhi’s house today and lead them to the 12, Tughlaq Lane house of Rahul Gandhi to meet him to persuade him to change his mind about quitting.

After the humiliating loss, Congress faced in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Congress President had expressed his adamancy to quit as the party head. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), had, however, rejected his resignation. Interestingly, the President of the Congress Working Committee is Rahul Gandhi himself.

Amidst all the theatrics, senior Congress leaders like Verappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor had come out in support of Rahul Gandhi’s post as Congress chief. His allies like the multi-crore fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad Yadav also spoke in support of Rahul Gandhi to remain as Congress chief, calling the resignation decision ‘suicidal’.

Amidst all this, there were reports that the Youth Congress workers have gone a step ahead in their dynasty worship. They have reportedly written letters in their own blood, urging Rahul Gandhi not to quit as the Party president.

However, it is being said that Gandhi who has been apparently sulking in his house after the Lok Sabha debacle, has already conveyed to the host of party leaders who met him along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi that he could at best lead the party in Parliament as the chief of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP).

He is believed to have conveyed to the party leaders that he was “not running away” but wanted that someone else should lead the Congress party, not necessarily from his family. Gandhi cited past examples when the party was led by leaders from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family, according to a senior leader.

Meanwhile, with Gandhi remaining adamant, a presidium system to govern the party is being considered, wherein a group of senior leaders will run the show.